SOUNDGARDENFrom Down On The Upside, Soundgarden Phrases Answers in the Form of
Questions: Kim Thayil Hosts Jeopardy!by Robin Genovese

As a shuttle motored me from the airport to Seattle's Capitol Hill
district, I promised myself I'd keep my cool and decided to pretend I
was going to be a Jeopardy! contestant. That way, I figured I'd feel
way more confident asking questions of Kim Thayil - an Alex Trebek of
rock if there ever was one. While both men are unbashedly well-read,
articulate and hairy, they share an intellectual swagger that adds a
fascinating dimension to your respect for them. The questions were to
be mine, the clues and catagories would belong to Thayil.

I'LL TAKE "US AGAINST THE WORLD" FOR $100, KIM...

Thayil jokes about "laying down" on the sofa and lights the first of
many cigarettes to come. The 35-year-old guitarist is as relaxed and
talkative as ever, contrasting sharply with the somewhat edgy
composure of drummer Matt Cameron - who arrived by motorcycle - and
the hopelessly catatonic Chris Cornell, whose shyness can only be
defined as dysfunctional and inexcusably rude. Well, almost. One
listen to "Burden In My Hand" from his band's latest release, Down
on the Upside, and the songwriter is not only pardoned, but one's
needs to both communicate with and understand him flies out the
window. Bassist Ben Shepherd is mowing his lawn, or something. This
odd assemblage of characters makes up the heart, soul and body of
Soundgarden - four individuals operating on different time clocks yet
somehow mercifully capable of synchronizing everything together.

From its inception in the mid-'80s, Soundgarden has bent rock, punk,
metal and noise out of shape, forming a sort of passive-aggressive yet
postureless posse that allows people to get as close as they like to
the music without stepping over the line of privacy. Soundgarden's
members have never allowed themselves to be turned into icons. They
couldn't care less. Raise your hand if you've ever seen someone
younger than 10 years old wearing a Soundgarden T-shirt. Remember
that the bulk of Michael Jackson's fans - in this hemisphere anyway -
are under the age of 10. You don't like Soundgarden because your
older brother likes them. You like Soundgarden because you
like them, and you don't care if you have to stand alone in the
process. In fact, that might even make it cooler.

Soundgarden can piss people off, but it's hard to diss Cornell the way
one relishes dissing STP's Scott Weiland or Oasis' Noel Gallager.
Soundgarden's members are altogether forboding and, in person, their
demeanor - their body language - is amplified in Peavey proportion.
They command respect, even if you think they're goofy. When's the
last time Lady Hole has something nasty and ignorant to say about
Soundgarden? Exactly. Never. They're probably the only
Seattle band to escape her cackling.

HOW ABOUT "SONGS IN THE KEY OF 'DUH'" FOR $200, KIM?...

Down on the Upside is an asked for and far superior successor
to 1994's Superunknown, at once collating some of Soundgarden's
past works and taking the group into new territory. Screaming
Life (1984) announced its arrival. Ultramega OK (1987)
showed its range. Louder Than Love (1988) proved its power.
Badmotorfinger (1991) revealed its growth and was a supreme
pronouncement of the band's potential. Superunknown - the
hardest album for the band to make - convinced the uninitiated of
Soundgarden's song-writing capability and went platinum five times
over. Down on the Upside is more comfortable with its own
body, the soloing and instrumentation packing a "united we stand"
tightness and punch even during the loser pieces such as the
Cameron-penned "Applebite" - a cousin to the material on
Ultramega with its processed vocals and spooky bassline a la
band founder Hiro Yamamoto.

"It's easier to get into than Motorfinger, but not as easy as
Superunknown," asserts Thayil. The straightaway winners are
"Burden In My Hand", "Never The Machine Forever," "No Attention", "An
Unkind", "Boot Camp" and "Ty Cobb". The other songs require more
listens, and "Never Named" just plain needs more turkey feed. Thayil
says that "Tighter and Tighter" is the only spillover from
Superunknown.

The guitarist agrees that Superunknown occasionaly sucked a
vis-a-vis production, and discusses the impact of self-production on
the band's newest album. "We've always co-produced from the beginning
'cause we were the ones writing the songs. Our producers acted as
recording engineers who had some creative input if the band was trying
to figure out direction and style, but that was it."

Big on bombast and resonance, producer Michael Beinhorn helped
Soundgarden sell more copies of Superunknown, but perhaps his
greatest contribution was in reminding the guys of their shared
dislike for many of his methods. While Motorfinger and
Louder Than Love producer Terry Date has perhaps upped the
metal ante at the expense of multi-platinum rigormorale, he was
nevertheless very in tune with the group and worked with them as a
friend. Thayil acknowledges having learned a lot from Date - an
audible debt heard on this newest release - although the sound is
newly intimate and homegrown.

"That primarily comes from the drum production," admits Thayil. "It's
more natural sounding. Chris didn't really sing anything straight.
There's a lot of delay and distortion. The guitars are less so. I've
always liked doubling up the guitars: me doing one line and then doing
the same line again and having it not exactly meet the other in the
same spot, which is cool. Bit with this [album] we did less of that.
We'd do one guitar track. Let the song breathe a little more."

Like many other bands from the region, recording in Seattle is
important for Soundgarden, who feel a sense of security closer to
home. Down on the Upside was laid down at studio Litho, a home
facilty owned by Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard. "It was like being in our
onw living room or kitchen. Some [record] labels like to get the
bands away from their hometowns and away from 'distractions'," thayil
smirks. "Well, that's good...if you're band happens to have drug
problems! [Laughs] Go somewhere else to make the record! But for
US, we need the release from the studio. When we're finished
[recording] we need to go out to a ball-game or hang out with some
friends."

A jam amongst Soundgarden's friends occured in early January of 1995.
The occasion was Pearl Jam's "Self-Pollution Radio" hijacking,
featuring programming made in Seattle heaven. Soundgarden performed
three songs, one of wich was the relentless pummel-fest called "No
Attention." The track shines on the new album, but it's taken five
years for the band to get it right.

"I'm the only one who totaly loved that song!" exclaims Thayil,
bouncing a little on the couch cushion. "Everyone in the band liked
it, but we could never make a recording of it that would do the song
justice." Only Soundgarden could rage punk and slow the song down to
a snarling Sabbath sludge at its conclusion. When I mention that I
heard them play it live at a Toronto gig with Neil Young in '93,
Cameron - raiding the fridge in search of munchies - sets us both
straight. "Yeah, it was Spoonman". Both those songs were written in
the key of D," says Cameron. "The key of duh!" Thayil
interjects. The bandmates make duh faces and laugh. Ah yes,
those dark Seattle 'D' songs...

UMMM...LET'S TRY THE "1/4/5 THING" FOR $300, KIM...

It's curious how much happier and childlike Ben Shepherd's writings in
comparison to the leanings of his bandmates. Shepherd appears benign
but has a menacing undercurrent waiting to pull you down. Evidence:
"Dusty" and "Switch opens," vintage Shepherd.

"I can see that fitting with his personality. The Sesame
Street-type quality. There's a certain innocence to it," says
Thayil, pausing and smiling at Chris, trying to draw the visiting
singer into the conversation. He dosn't bite.

"I know exactly what he does to make things happy," continues Thayil.
"He does these suspended things on the guitar. It's something I avoid
all the time in writing. It's something the Stones do - one of those
Stones chords. [He demonstrates a Keef and Woody butt-rock jam, a
little disdainfully] He'll, like, linearize the line. To me, these
things are very common on Stones chords or AC/DC chords. Kinda like
bar rock. When we stared, Hiro, Chris and I constantly avoided 1/4/5
when we wrote something. It would be like 'Oh, hellooo! It's a
1/4/5 thing!' just cause it's so generically rock. But Ben twists it
up. He naturally tends towards this 1/4/5 thing. "Ty Cobb" is all
over the place with 1/4/5 and "Never Named" has a lot of suspended
stuff. There's something about those songs that's friendlier and more
familiar but the arrangement is more aggressive." Shepherd's playing
is more dissonant, and his work with Cameron in their side project
Hater seems to have influenced the other half of the band, keeping
things fresh.

I'M GOING TO TAKE "INSTRUMENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD" FOR $400, KIM...

When Thayil moved to Seattle from suburban Illinois after high school
with his best friend and Soundgarden founder Hiro Yamamoto, little did
he realize the impact his journey would have on his career. Or on "Ty
Cobb." Like its subject, the song is a furious, stubborn mouthpiece
("I'm not getting old!") with mandola and mandolin adding a blue-grass
feel - very different from Soundgarden.

"It's ironic, because when Hiro and I moved here we had this Datsun
B-210 and we packed all our clothes and didn't even take my records.
I packed a bunch of artwork and writings in a suitcase. I had my
guitar. Hiro didn't have a bass, yet. He had a mandolin and a viola.
We had these acoustic mandolins and whoever wasn't driving would sit
there and play the mandolin. And I'd be playing and Hiro would be
driving along and would turn around and look. He wasn't paying
attention to the road and he'd go "Why don't you drive for a bit."
So, I'd drive for a bit and he'd sit there and play out stuff. You'd
look up and see you were in Montana. And that's how I taught him
bass. That was kind of the first bondings of me and Hiro's, four or
five days in a row - trading off mandolin when we weren't driving.
It's kind of cool, like this circle that comes around. I think Chris
played mandolin [on "Ty Cobb"] and Ben played mandolin." Originally,
Hiro and Kim were the songwriting force behind the band. But
mutations make you stronger.

LET'S SEE WHAT "THE CONSTITUTION" IS ALL ABOUT FOR $500, KIM...

Thayil delves into his "paranoia", and how he has learned to handle
being in a public profession. "I can be gregarious and
outgoing...which is something I try to do in order to not seem
unfriendly...but there's a certain part of me that borders on
paranoia. So much that the other guys laugh about it. There
is a certain private unfriendliness to me that I mostly share with
people closest to me. I try not to burden people with my weird
trips." It's okay not to want to give your phone number away to Radio
Shack, Kim, but must you be darted in other to board an airplane?
Maybe that needs some urgent attention...

I'LL SWITCH TO "THOSE DARNED ENCODERS" FOR $600, KIM...

Thayil discusses how hard it is for him to write lyrics - he wrote all
of "Never The Machine Forever" - and we stumble on the delicate topic
of aesthetics. A philosophy graduate, the guitarist tears into
religious and political heathens who persist in blurring the line
between art and rhetoric. His arguments shed light on his band's aura
of creative empowerment. How you hear its music is your business.

"[These fanatics] think that artwork - and everything - is encoded.
Somehow, they think that their appreciation of a song or a painting
requires that they are able to decode it. This is a misunderstanding
of art in general and, unfortunately, people who grew up in the 50's
or 60's who learned that that's the way to appreciate art are now
making art that is encoded. And it's bad art. If it's
beautiful, it should be able to communicate beauty. That's the nature
of aesthetics. If there is some other message you're trying to
communicate, just fucking say that! Don't encode it! It's so
corny!" Uh-oh, duck and cover Eddie! Here Thayil comes, looking for
you!

"Sometimes artists - primarily encoders - have an agenda and
politicize their art. You will often find that what I consider to be
bad art to be [labeled] feminist art or communist art or fascist art.
Well, it's just crap because it has an agenda - a specific political
or social idea so it's considering itself aesthetics. It's
considering itself voodoo."

I'M GONNA JUMP TO "BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY" FOR $800, KIM...

Speaking of voodoo, Soundgarden's participation in this year's
Lollapalooza Festival has surprised a lot of fans. The last huge show
they performed in Canada was the disastrous 30,000 person mega-gig
with Nine Inch Nails in Barrie, ON, two years back. Soundgarden
appeared weary and outgunned, largely due to poor scheduling, lack of
preperation and headliners jitters. The large setting seemed out of
character for a moody, insular unit. Always more effective in front
of a smaller audience, it'll be interesting to see how the band copes
with realizing that all those thousands of people are coming to see
them, in addition to the Ramones. And maybe Metallica. "We've
been more about turning the amps up and blasting out live so the only
theatre you get is how we act on stage," Thayil offers. The last time
they did Lollapalooza, they had the 6 p.m. slot. This time, they'll
be playing second to last.

WELL, I GUESS "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST" IS ALL THAT'S LEFT FOR DOUBLE
JEOPARDY!

The matter of survival becomes a little more meaningful the more
successful a group becomes. Even Soundgarden must contend with this
problem. The band was fortunate enough to have hit its jackpot at the
tail-end of the Seattle-hype, so the public can at least concentrate
on the music. Although i am told that the old crowd is to "venture
out of hiding," hanging out at the Comic or the Crocodile like they
used to, the music community of this beautiful city has to watch its
recent past chronicled and analysed ad nauseim in dime store
biographies and poster books, in addition to documentary films such as
the Sundance festival Hype.

"It's a little strange. In a way it's kinda cool. You look at it and
you see all your buddies. It's cool to get everyone's perspective.
But those documentaries are usually done backwards...They're basicaly
looking at somthing that's been done. It's over."

Wearing an even thicker "Rhinosaur" hide, Soundgarden holds its head
up, despite the threat of extinction and usurpation - a
prehistoric/modern hybrid that won't turn into a casualty. The
weighty task of survival - technocolourfully described in "Burden In
My Hand" - is juxtaposed with the uplifting pulse of the soul. At
long last, Cornell's love of soul music is no longer a well-kept
secret: "Follow me into the desert/As desperate as you are". Those
words answer to the mantra repeated in "Boot Camp" but aren't answers
unto themselves. Bet everything on this clue: the machine is not
forever.